It was a protracted seven years for the Ottawa Senators and their fans, having to sit down on the sidelines each spring since 2017 when the club last made the playoffs.
The absence was felt not only on the Canadian Tire Centre where the Sens play their home games, but in addition at local restaurants and pubs. With the team back within the playoffs and facing off against their arch rivals across Highway 401, locals say a palpable energy is back.
“It is that this sense of community,” said Joey Rosa, a training and development coordinator at Ottawa’s Heart and Crown pub.
“Everyone can get on board with it. For the games themselves, you possibly can hear people room to room cheering.”
Despite a 6-2 shellacking by the Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 1 of the Battle of Ontario, Rosa said a “full of life, pumped-up” crowd nearly filled Heart and Crown’s downtown location within the ByWard Market, which might fit as much as 500 people.
Ahead of the playoffs, he said the pub opened up more rooms and even updated its projector screens so fans could higher benefit from the festivities on game nights. Extra staff are also being kept on call in case they need reinforcements to handle the boost in visitors.
“We expect an influx in business of course,” said Rosa, speaking before Game 2 of the series on Tuesday that the Leafs ended up winning 3-2 in extra time.
“We got ahead of it because we knew the Senators were going to be rocking these playoffs.”
The identical goes for Ziggy’s Pub in Montreal, where the phones have been ringing off the hook as hockey fans attempt to book tables see the Canadiens tackle the Washington Capitals.
Get day by day National news
Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.
The one problem, said owner Ziggy Eichenbaum, is that they don’t take reservations.
“First come, first served,” he said.
Eichenbaum said he’s expecting a “crazy” weekend for business, with the Habs playing home games in Montreal on Friday and Sunday.
“It’s like a Grand Prix,” he said, referencing the excitement across the annual Formula One racing event in town.
“It’s Recent Yr’s in Montreal right away. Everybody’s walking around pleased and everybody’s talking about hockey.”
The Canadiens last made the playoffs in 2021, once they went all of the solution to the Stanley Cup final but got here up short. That run happened in the course of the thick of the COVID-19 pandemic, which meant bars and restaurants couldn’t fully enjoy a boom for business due to capability restrictions.
“We’ve totally missed it,” said Eichenbaum, adding he expects “mayhem and madness” in Montreal so long as the team stays alive.
“It’s excellent news for everyone — restaurants, bars and shops — because of individuals come from out of town … and everybody loves to come back to Montreal.”
Five Canadian teams are competing for the Stanley Cup these playoffs. Together with the three eastern clubs, there are high hopes in Winnipeg after the Jets finished in first place in the course of the regular season, and in Edmonton after the Oilers went all of the solution to the Stanley Cup final last 12 months.
A deep run could spark a surge in local spending, in accordance with payment processor Moneris.
Last June, because the Oilers fell in Game 7 of the ultimate, Moneris said spending was up greater than 200 per cent near the team’s home arena — despite the sport being played on the road. Moneris said Edmonton’s downtown Ice District saw a spending increase for home games during that series of fifty per cent greater than non-game days.
Meanwhile in Winnipeg, Dana Cherski said she’s hoping “that is the 12 months.”
Cherski, general manager of sports bar and restaurant Underdogs, said it was “all hands on deck” for Monday’s game between the Jets and St. Louis Blues. The bar had triple its normal staffing levels to accommodate the 200 Jets fans who packed in for the sport, because the Jets took a 2-0 series lead.
“We were a full house, so it was crazy in here. Now we have ‘whiteout’ decorations all over and it’s just been a definite buzz around town,” she said.
“Now we have decorations in all places, we’re doing numerous giveaways of random stuff and free swag … after which we’ve an enormous horn that we blast at any time when we rating.”
Cherski said it could get even rowdier over the following few days with the Jets on the road, as fans flock to local businesses to look at together.
“Obviously home games are still great because the whole city is just super excited … however the away games are going to be absolutely bonkers,” she said.
Over in Ottawa, Rosa said “the excitement is just constructing,” with the Sens returning home for games on Thursday and Saturday against the Leafs.
While he expects those to be big nights for fans in black and red jerseys to collect at downtown eateries, Rosa acknowledged there would likely be many wearing blue and white amongst the gang too.
“We welcome everybody,” he said.
“You simply may need to suffer the implications.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
